Sony details its new Concept for Android UI: near stock Lollipop with popular Sony apps

posted by Florin T. / Jul 22, 2015, 1:15 PM

Sony details its new Concept for Android UI: near stock Lollipop with popular Sony apps

Earlier this week, we heard that Sony was looking to test a new Android UI for its smartphones, starting with trials available to Xperia Z3 owners in Sweden. Today, Sony revealed more about this, also showing us two screenshots of the new UI.

According to Sony, the "Concept for Android" UI is based on Android 5.1 Lollipop, and offers a "stripped back, vanilla Android look and feel" that's enhanced with some of the most popular Sony features and apps.

As you can see in the images below, Sony's new UI does indeed look close to stock Android Lollipop. Unfortunately, for now we can't know exactly how the interface feels in terms of performance.

Only 500 Xperia Z3 users in Sweden will be able to test Sony's new Android UI (by registering at the second source link below). However, Sony says that this first trial may lead to trials for other Xperia devices, in more countries.

Do you own an Xperia smartphone or tablet? If yes, what do you think about Sony's initiative to strip down its Android user interface?

Sony's new Concept for Android UI

sources: Sony, Sony Concept for Android UI registration

FEATURED VIDEO

Options

45 Comments

1. Zomer

Posts: 361; Member since: May 31, 2013

Looks great!

posted on Jul 22, 2015, 1:17 PM 27

10. killerpollo

Posts: 89; Member since: May 15, 2015

looks just like stock android, what's to praise about that?...

posted on Jul 22, 2015, 1:44 PM 10

14. XperiaFanZone

Posts: 2277; Member since: Sep 21, 2012

So, stock Android doesn't look great?

posted on Jul 22, 2015, 2:04 PM 11

25. may_czos

Posts: 955; Member since: Nov 22, 2014

No, it's pretty ugly.

posted on Jul 22, 2015, 4:10 PM 9

28. mafiaprinc3

Posts: 585; Member since: May 07, 2012

so it's safe to say yo have a horrible taste, I guess it's just your opinion but this looks better than stock android to me

posted on Jul 22, 2015, 7:35 PM 2

43. epdm2be

Posts: 822; Member since: Apr 20, 2012

He has no horrible taste. Just eyes in his head. The reason why (Im)Material Design looks awful is because most versions have no shadows under their flat icons to distinguish them from a (busy) background. The only decent looking lollipop design is Samsung's S6 version only because of the soft shadow under their icons. The S5-version also is FUgly.

posted on Jul 24, 2015, 3:01 AM 0

45. killerpollo

Posts: 89; Member since: May 15, 2015

it does, what I mean is, why should we praise sony for this?, it's Google's design language not sony's....

posted on Jul 24, 2015, 10:46 AM 0

19. JAPANESEPATRIOT

Posts: 65; Member since: May 26, 2015

Finest Japanese tech, NOT cheap Chinese or Korean one. That's more than enough

posted on Jul 22, 2015, 2:44 PM 2

26. Well-Manicured-Man

Posts: 690; Member since: Jun 16, 2015

I think it makes sense for Sony to stick closer to stock Android since Sony can save resources this way which would be necessary to maintain Sony's proprietary Android version. However, I don't like the stock Android App symbols. I think they look so fragile. Nothing you really want to press on. Google should go for rather iOS-like symbols which surround the actual symbol with a box.

posted on Jul 22, 2015, 4:17 PM 8

29. thariq

Posts: 32; Member since: Jan 11, 2014

The biggest reason why I am away from ios is those icons, simply ugly.

posted on Jul 22, 2015, 7:55 PM 2

40. Onami

Posts: 16; Member since: Mar 29, 2014

I agree, Google material design is only something good in the concept. Wasting too much usage user's space in the screen, Plain design is really something unpolished (somehow when comparing w Sony/HTC UI). The problem with Sony UI is lacking some convenient (lagging?) features. Sr for my bad English.

posted on Jul 23, 2015, 4:56 AM 0

15. hboy857

Posts: 367; Member since: Jun 03, 2013

IMHO, this is the way to go. Sony should add useful features without f**king up the overall software design aesthetics. Their hardware design is excellent but software design is mixed up with various design approach. They should keep the popular Sony apps, remove the unnecessary bloatware and put more focus on the overall user experience.

posted on Jul 22, 2015, 2:07 PM 9

30. apamau

Posts: 13; Member since: Jun 29, 2014

Yes, I fully agreed. Don't try to put up things that we don't really use and make the device moving slow.

posted on Jul 22, 2015, 9:55 PM 0

22. dazzmichael

Posts: 71; Member since: Sep 15, 2014

but they still need to get rid of the big icons, atleast give us an option to minimise them, Those are one of the reasons why i use launchers.

posted on Jul 22, 2015, 3:54 PM 0

23. Zylam

Posts: 1817; Member since: Oct 20, 2010

I will buy a Xperia in a heartbeat if Sony's new ui is 90%+ stock Android. Thank you SONY!

posted on Jul 22, 2015, 3:58 PM 3

37. RajRicardo

Posts: 496; Member since: Feb 28, 2014

It already does. :|

posted on Jul 23, 2015, 1:04 AM 0

38. engineer-1701d unregistered

nice very nice

posted on Jul 23, 2015, 1:09 AM 0

2. shaineql

Posts: 522; Member since: Apr 28, 2014

Nice and clean , i like it.

posted on Jul 22, 2015, 1:24 PM 9

3. eviatar

Posts: 18; Member since: Jul 20, 2015

Previous articles on the discussions leaked video of Nexus 5 (2015) Now the man took out a new video (I followed him {it all worth for Krdit

posted on Jul 22, 2015, 1:31 PM 0

4. Basharhd99

Posts: 102; Member since: Jul 05, 2012

Love it tbh.

posted on Jul 22, 2015, 1:32 PM 1

7. eviatar

Posts: 18; Member since: Jul 20, 2015

Previous articles on the discussions leaked video of Nexus 5 (2015) Now the man took out a new video (I followed him {it all worth for Krdit

posted on Jul 22, 2015, 1:35 PM 0

11. buccob

Posts: 2968; Member since: Jun 19, 2012

In my opinion, I am ok with the design being even closer to Stock, however I hope that the Added functionality that Sony has always brought to its UI is not removed... I have ignored the Lollipop upgrade yet because of that reason... I don't want previous features to be removed.... and hopefully they keep the following, since I love and use daily: - Small Apps - Widget and Homescreen Management - Close All button for Recent Apps - Lock Screen widgets - Smart Settings - PS3 Controller Connectivity (I heard they start removing and keeping only PS4 controllers support)

posted on Jul 22, 2015, 1:48 PM 6

21. monoke

Posts: 1162; Member since: Mar 14, 2015

I'm still on kk too bro. I'll prob never update since I don't see any performance /battery improvement whatsoever and some features you've mentioned are gone or half assed. Update only if you want an uglier ui with fancy animations imo.

posted on Jul 22, 2015, 3:23 PM 1

31. buccob

Posts: 2968; Member since: Jun 19, 2012

My main motivation to update is the ability to install apps on the SD card... I am constantly running out of memory (I like saving my pictures to the internal memory) and would love to be able to install huge apps without a problem...

posted on Jul 22, 2015, 10:17 PM 1

13. TheGunnyPT

Posts: 252; Member since: Feb 12, 2015

Now, that's an amazing UI I would use. Please do release the launcher of this. It looks amazing! Best of both worlds ASOP with Xperia theme

posted on Jul 22, 2015, 1:59 PM 3

17. Bm888

Posts: 517; Member since: Jul 06, 2015

I am touchwiz inspired. .love it's functionality, waiting when tizen OS will mature for use at flagship level coz it's gonna be the killer OS due to its lightweight nature and in top of it the great touchwiz. .and "hullabaloos" of lag will be gone for good.

posted on Jul 22, 2015, 2:23 PM 0

18. Feanor

Posts: 1367; Member since: Jun 20, 2012

Fantastic! I actually installed the Google Now launcher to my Z2 to do exactly this and bring my interface closer to stock Android without loosing the added functionality like double tap to wake, always on screen when you look at it, small apps, etc. Wouldn't mind having it out of the box.

posted on Jul 22, 2015, 2:41 PM 0

20. darealist

Posts: 107; Member since: Feb 25, 2015

This may allow Sony to release faster updates.

posted on Jul 22, 2015, 2:57 PM 0

24. vuyonc

Posts: 1091; Member since: Feb 24, 2014

As long as they can increase functionality and freedom. Their current theme engine has brought some sweet themes but need more depth. Matching icon packs will do the trick. Deeper camera controls. Newer Xperias deserve fully fledged multi window apps too. Sony apps need immersion mode. Ultra Stamina mode needs basic Web browsing and low power games (old school games like Snake or Tower of Hanoi).